Well, I survived the cyclone. Up here in the north we didn't get hit too hard. Needless to say, it was the worst wind I've ever seen and after the 8th? 10th? day of rain, I had had enough. Then finally, the sun was out! The heat was back! Humidity! Sweat dripping down your face unstoppably! The worst damage in my village was along the river. A flood in either 2006 or 2007 destroyed a lot of the village; numerous homes were lost. The erosion of the river only intensified with this storm. We lost up to 2.5 meters in some places. Our bread oven is now threatened to go in the river! And yet, the elders are still not convinced that logging is bad. Landslides occurred all along the road. One of our buses is indefinitely stopped due to landslides. The only thing that really held up in the village: my bure. I have the strongest house in the village, so I'm told. And it's true: no leaks (i did lose a lot of the leaves of my roof but no leaks!), no flooding, no cracks.
But all is back to normal. We're working on a community health profile, interviewing every family in the village about spirituality, education, finances, health, and social structures. The surveying would make Frank start beating himself up with his cane! But, by using the secondary education students, we were able to get most of the families interviewed and it was helpful for them- I hope. Some of the questions ask about where thevillage's water comes from. The answer, from a lot of the students, is "the pipe/ tap." Um, well, yes, but from where? A never ending, always flowing pipe? I love things like this and am excited to start compiling the data. But how Fiji is this: they made these really nice booklets, one for each family, and one for the community where you compile all the information. Except, there is no spreadsheet or database or anything, really, to keep track of all the info. Thus, I will design a spreadsheet so I can tally each response by hand and give that to the Ministry of Health for a template. Otherwise, what good is the data if it's just sitting inthese books?
There is plenty for me to do in the village, which I like. I've started working in our co-operative, which is technically the Women's Store except the women don't seem to have much input. Not that they don't have the opportunity. They just aren't really interested. It's me and this older man who's really lovely. He speaks excellent English. He laughs a lot. There are only a couple windows in the store and it's hotter than the blazes in there. But, this man, Maciu, aka Shopkeeper, just installed this little solar energy power unit, with three flourescent light bulbs. And I guess we're getting a solar powered fridge (for ice cream)! The village owes the store over $600 in diesel for the generator, so something has to change in the village.
That's about all for now. Things are going well. I've come to the conclusion that I did something to my camera that isn't allowing me to view the pictures online. I don't know what in the world I did or happened but I'd love to get more pictures up!!!
And, what would a blog post be without another exclamation of joy and excitement for America. I listened to Obama's inaugural speech twice and watched him take the oath a few times. So he bungled it a little; he's human and he was excited and nervous- just look at him! he giggled! it's so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a great speech, particularly the part about rights and equality for all and how America is a patchwork country and how great that is.
Sigh. Now to buy some veggies and catch my bus back. MWAH.
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